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Kelsey Ford: From the Stacks: J. M. Ledgard's Submergence (0 comment)
Our blog feature, "From the Stacks," features our booksellers’ favorite older books: those fortuitous used finds, underrated masterpieces, and lesser known treasures. Basically: the books that we’re the most passionate about handselling. This week, we’re featuring Kelsey F.’s pick, Submergence by J. M. Ledgard...
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  • Kelsey Ford: Powell's Picks Spotlight: Grady Hendrix's 'How to Sell a Haunted House' (0 comment)

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Clown Girl

by Monica Drake, Hawthorne Books
Clown Girl

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  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Read an Excerpt

ISBN13: 9780976631156
ISBN10: 0976631156
Condition: Standard


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Clown Girl lives in Baloneytown, a seedy neighborhood where drugs, balloon animals, and even rubber chickens contribute to the local currency. Against a backdrop of petty crime, she struggles to live her dreams, calling on cultural masters Charlie Chaplin, Kafka, and da Vinci for inspiration. In an effort to support herself and her layabout performance-artist boyfriend, Clown Girl finds herself unwittingly transformed into a "corporate clown," trapping herself in a cycle of meaningless, high-paid gigs that veer dangerously close to prostitution. Monica Drake has created a novel that riffs on the high comedy of early film stars — most notably Chaplin and W. C. Fields — to raise questions of class, gender, economics, and prejudice. Resisting easy classification, this debut novel blends the bizarre, the humorous, and the gritty with stunning skill.

Review

"Riffing on language and revising her jokes in nervous flurries, Nita is the most endearingly teary clown since Smokey Robinson. Grade: A-" Entertainment Weekly

Review

"Sniffles, the titular clown girl, is endearingly self-deprecating....Clown Girl is a polished, quirky and often-funny look at the dark side of clown life." Winnipeg Free Press

Review

"Clown Girl is mesmerizing, drunk on the high wire, gorgeous and dangerous fun." Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love

Review

"Clown Girl is more than a great book. Clown Girl is its own reality. We should all have an arch enemy this brilliant." Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club

Review

Clown Girl is an extreme novel...a hilarious book that asks the startling question: what does it mean to be serious about clowning?" Peter Rock, author of The Unsettling

Review

"The word 'unique' is widely abused but I think, for once, it's justified: this novel is not much like anything else, and all the better for it. A really exciting debut." Kevin Canty, author of Winslow in Love

Review

"I have no doubt that Drake will be big — maybe as big as former classmates, even. So please, no matter how cautious you are about this one, give it a go. Judge it on its own merits. I guarantee you that it'll be worth your while." Fancy Pants, Incorporated

About the Author

Monica Drake has an MFA from the University of Arizona and teaches at the Pacific NW College of Art. She is a contributor of reviews and articles to the Oregonian, the Stranger, and the Portland Mercury and her fiction has appeared in the Beloit Fiction Review, Threepenny Review, The Insomniac Reader, and others. She has been the recipient of an Arizona Commission on the Arts Award, the Alligator Juniper Prize in Fiction, and a Millay Colony Fellowship, and was a Tennessee Williams scholar at Sewanee Writers Workshop.

4.4 5

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!
Average customer rating 4.4 (5 comments)

`
lendielee , October 20, 2014
all fellow clown nose-ians should keep this under their beds!

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`
lukas , May 03, 2014 (view all comments by lukas)
"Gacy. 'That guy ruined the gig for a lot of clowns.'" Things are tough in Baloneytown, especially for a serious clown who can tie balloon animals into Biblical figures and scenes. Monica Drake, who emerged from Tom Spandauer's "dangerous writing" club, along with Chuck Palahniuk, has a very peculiar and dark sense of humor, reminiscent of both Palahniuk and Kathleen "Geek Love" Dunn. It also taught me the meaning of the word "coulrophilia," which is attraction to clowns.

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`
Jennifer Graham , January 02, 2011
It's so hard to write a comedic novel--especially one that allows for genuine human absurdity rather than some forced ironic posturing. Clown Girl somehow finds the perfect center of black comedy: the space where the humour comes not from a diminishment or belittling of the protagonist's pain but a bottomless acceptance of it. Kafka, Chaplin, Emmet Kelly, and W.C. Fields are all invoked here, quite appropriately. Slapstick collides with existential conundra; our heroine's search for love, community, family, and art are all ennobled by the patent ridiculousness of her life. Did I mention it's really damn funny? Don't be fooled by the wacky premise; this isn't a gimmick kind of book. Yes, it pivots around the world of clowning; and yes there is a heartbreaking quest for a lost rubber chicken; and yes our heroine does get involved in the seamy coulrophiliac underbelly of Baloneytown; and yes, there is a mystery involving stolen pee. It's a comedy, after all. But like all the best comedy it invites both the sympathy and the intellect to come out to play.

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`
hotpants , January 04, 2010
Well written and engaging. This book kept me turning the page long after bedtime.

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`
Clark , February 24, 2009 (view all comments by Clark)
I thought this book was very entertaining. It is highly creative and well written. Monica Drake definitely has a real talent, Clown Girl is evidence of her abilities. I am looking forward to her next book.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780976631156
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
01/04/2007
Publisher:
HAWTHORNE BOOKS & LITERARY ARTS
Pages:
297
Height:
.64IN
Width:
5.56IN
Thickness:
.75
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
2007
UPC Code:
2800976631158
Author:
Monica Drake
Author:
Hawthorne Books
Intro:
Chuck Palahniuk
Subject:
Black humor (Literature)
Subject:
Women performance artists
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
Clowns

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$10.50
List Price:$15.95
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
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1Local Warehouse
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